113 out of the 278 residents at the St Joseph care home in Fgura have tested positive for Covid-19, the home said.

29 staff members are also positive. The majority of the residents who tested positive are asymptomatic.

“One of the ways we are using to curb the spread is by separating residents according to their test results, through bubble clusters. Positive cases, negative cases, and persons in quarantine are not in contact with one another,” the home said in a Facebook post.

“We have seven doctors giving us continuous support; four of these are Consultants and three of them are General Practitioners. All seven are monitoring the situation day and night. Any clinical decision, such as whether a resident should remain at the home, or be transferred to Mater Dei, is made solely by them. Such procedures are ongoing, be it day or night, a public holiday, or the weekend. We also have an on-call service during the night.”

The home said that, in order to have better control over the situation with regard to the containment of Covid-19, all staff members and all residents are being swabbed once every three days.

“At the moment we have 29 staff members who have tested positive, and 50 staff members who are in quarantine. With the coordination between our Home and all the Departments concerned, we have managed under control the situation of our workers.

Thankfully, we have started receiving news of persons who had previously tested positive, but have now tested negative for Covid-19.”

The home said it is contacting family members of residents who tested positive, immediately after the results are given to it.

“With regard to the rest of the families of those residents whose results are negative, we are also in constant contact with all of them, through messages, calls, and e-mails.”